Kind of interesting to note that of the 8 years That there has been an NCS lacrosse final, Both DLS and MV have been (including the upcoming final), in it 6 times. Monte Vista has won 3 NCS titles, beating DLS once. DLS has one 3 NCS titles, beating Monte Vista Twice. They split their two games this season, DLS winning the first one at home by 4 and MV winning the second one at home by 8. The final rematch should be very interesting.

De La Salle is 20-3, and the Spartans have won 13 of their last 14 games, having lost only to . . . . Monte Vista. Before that the Spartans' last loss was to St. Ignatius. Monte Vista went through a rough patch on the road in April, but have won 10 in a row, and 12 of their last 13 since their loss to SRV by 3 on April 19. The teams split their EBAL home and away slugfests, the Spartans winning 12-8 at home on March 22, and Monte Vista holding service by 16-8 (!) on May 4.

Miramonte played the Spartans and scrimmaged the Mustangs. Got spanked by both squads. No help there.

Gotta look at history. In 2009 each of these teams won an overtime game at home. Your fearless prognosticator took Monte Vista by 2. Final score: De La Salle - 12, Monte Vista - 7.

Foothill took both regular season contests against De La in 2010. DlaxDad picked the Falcons to complete the trifecta, by 2 goals. Final score: De La Salle - 11, Foothill - 10 in 2 overtimes.

I'm seeing a pattern emerge here.

And by golly I'm not going to change now.

One of the things SI and Monte Vista have in common is terrific attack lines. Perhaps that's the Spartans' Achilles heel. Anyway, I like the Mustangs to take a dogfight by 3.

Note to Spartans: Now that DlaxDad has picked against you again, your victory is assured.

I was frankly shocked when I got the text last time these two played and saw that MV womped on DLS by 8 goals. If we looked back through the seasons, I would be shocked to see if De La has lost to ANYONE (in California at least) by that much since they became a CIF program. That being said, I definitely expect this final game to be a dogfight as both teams are peaking at the right time of the season (as Dlaxdad has so astutely observed). Furthermore, this may have become the most heated rivalry in the EBAL (outside of Pleasanton at least) as these teams are NOT at all fond of each other (nor are their parents, in my recent experience).

Bucking the trend for once, I am going to go ahead and say that this game will come down to OFFENSE. Both D's have been playing very well of late, De La drubbing Foothill on Wednesday, and MV playing extremely well in settle D an man-down situations (All three of SRV's first quarter goals were off of broken plays/clears - and their last goal was meaningless with one second left). Out of the offenses, De La looks like they are a bit more sharp as of late, putting up 12 on a very solid Foothill D. MV on the other hand, struggled a bit on offense at times last night, also collecting a couple of goals on broken plays and looking out of sync, especially in the first quarter. That being said, when MV's O is firing on all cylinders it is a beauty to behold, and they will score at will - as DLS and San Ramon (in MV's previous win) can surely attest to. It will be very interesting to see what types of adjustments both teams make for the Finale as I am positive DLS will not be happy allowing 16 again, and MV will not be happy scoring less than 10.

I will say that the Middies for both team will be the deciding factors in this game. If MV can get their middie rotations and ball-movement working like they have in the past - thus creating bigger seams for the attack - DLS will be hard-pressed for answers. At the same time, if DLS gets good production out of their midfield, something SRV could not do effectively against MV last night (i believe all of Tags' goals were initiated from x, and Worstell/Weiss were not factors), MV will have their hands full.

I'll call this a race to 10 - if either team can get to 10 goals, they will win. If neither of them do, I will say that MV will need to keep De La at 7 goals or less to win.

Well in 2009 DLS had the hot start beating everyone in ebal and only losing to Coronado and SI. Then similar to this year they got overconfident and lost 2 league games (while in 2011 DLS lost one league game) one of those being to Monte Vista. I can't help but draw the similarities from 2009 to this 2011 team. Everyone said in 2009 that DLS had the hot start but they felt that MV had passed them up late in the season. I for one am someone who thinks the first game is more telling. Both teams really want the first match and in the second game it usually seems like the loser of the first match wants it more. This all being said...

I am going to choose DLS in this game by 3. I consider myself to be the opposite of DlaxDad when it comes to choosing the winner of the final The last two years I have picked DLS and they've made me look good so why not do it again? Wilm and Hunt will lead DLS to a victory having already won 2 ncs championships themselves.

I would generally agree with that line of thinking, however, MV is playing waaaaaay better (in general, not so much last night), than they did in the first half of the year. Not to say that DLS is not (and yes I realize that the last matchup was Wilm's first game back from a broken thumb), however, I think that right now, if they play at the top of their game, that MV is the better team... By a hair.

So basically, the team that plays better will win... Prophetic, I know.